National Blog

Meet the Americans the NSA and FBI are spying on

Glenn Greenwald published his much anticipated article naming Americans the NSA and FBI are spying on last night. The list includes Muslim Americans involved in politics, government, law, and education. From The Intercept:

The National Security Agency and FBI have covertly monitored the emails of prominent Muslim-Americans—including a political candidate and several civil rights activists, academics, and lawyers—under secretive procedures intended to target terrorists and foreign spies.

According to documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the list of Americans monitored by their own government includes:

• Faisal Gill, a longtime Republican Party operative and one-time candidate for public office who held a top-secret security clearance and served in the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush;

• Asim Ghafoor, a prominent attorney who has represented clients in terrorism-related cases;

• Hooshang Amirahmadi, an Iranian-American professor of international relations at Rutgers University;

• Agha Saeed, a former political science professor at California State University who champions Muslim civil liberties and Palestinian rights;

• Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the country.

Today in a Reddit AMA, Greeenwald said, in response to a question on whether there were other groups who were targeted by the NSA, that he couldn't discuss it a the moment, "but there are more stories coming."

The entire article is worth the lengthy read, but what I found to be the most heartbreaking line came from Faisal Gill, who was spied on by the NSA, even though he had a top security clearance, while he was running for public office.

Even a U.S. citizen like Faisal Gill, who served his country both in the armed forces and in the White House, found himself spied on by his own government. “I was a very conservative, Reagan-loving Republican,” he says. “If somebody like me could be surveilled, then other people out there I can only imagine who are under surveillance.

“I went to school here as a fourth grader – learned about the Revolutionary War, learned about individual rights, Thomas Jefferson, all these things,” he continues. “That is ingrained in you – your privacy is important. And to have that basically invaded for no reason whatsoever – for the fact that I didn’t do anything – I think that’s troubling. And I think that certainly goes to show how we need to shape policy differently than it is right now.”

Call your representative and senators and demand they repeal the so-called 'Patriot' Act and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. 202-224-3121